


Death takes a holiday

by alezhys



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 06:08:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13564470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alezhys/pseuds/alezhys
Summary: (title taken from a "supernatural" ep.)post-apocalyptic au.kyungsoo's hiding somewhere deep inside the woods, living a half life and holding onto what little hope he's left now humanity's about to go extinct





	Death takes a holiday

Living on the edge of the world, where everything's bleak. Kyungsoo's watch stopped working hundreds of years ago, and so did his life.

He's been standing here, looking at the sand; waves relentlessly coming in and then leaving to somewhere far away. Kyungsoo can't imagine where though, because there's nothing out there: only these corpse-littered old hills and plains to walk and blankly stare at.

He gets the ocasional visitor; traces of people going up and down the place, pass his cabin out there in the woods.  
His closest neighbor's a new one, living at least one mile away, deep into the mountainside.

The man, Kyungsoo's neighbor, is lanky and tall, bow legged and large eyed; he doesn't speak much to everyone but Kyungsoo. He's got dark brown hair and choppy bangs. Back before coming 'round to live there, he says, he went everywhere: he met hundreds of people and breathed the different airs.

Now he's just here, visiting kyungsoo for dinner, joining him to go hunting and walking around the beach. His name's Park Chanyeol.

Kyungsoo's got neighbors before, he still does. Like when he got that nice couple living right in the middle of the widest plain, Sehun and Junmyeon, right before they too somehow got away.

Or like Baekhyun and Jongdae, still living somewhere on the east, sending Kyungsoo homemade jam or meat wrapped in newspaper whenever there's a food shortage. They're nice too.

Chanyeol's nice. And maybe Kyungsoo's not being generous enough because, more often that not, he wakes up to Chanyeol pacing around his kitchen, making lunch, or simply sitting on Kyungsoo's sofa, eyes closed and deep in thought.

When he's not, it probably means it's Kyungsoo's turn to visit him.

There's no definite memories as to when this started, it just did. It was the end of it all as they knew it, armageddon everywhere. They had to flee and pray for food to come their way... somehow.

Kyungsoo found a piece of safe haven and god only knows what he'd to force himself to do to get there. And he'd never talked about it to anyone but Chanyeol, now, who's got some end-of-the-world scars of his own. Some clearer, more visible than others.

He's deaf. Chanyeol's deaf. Kyungsoo realized days after finding him out hunting deep in the woods, gingerly touching a hand to the musty earth and frowning.

Running away from the wars and the bombs, Chanyeol lost his hearing and went about the world relying on guts feeling and sheer luck. And he made it there. (Thank god.)

There was a certain loneliness about him, Kyungsoo noticed too one day. There was loneliness hanging around them all. It comes with losing everything you ever had; the blood flooding still fresh on the streets.

Kyungsoo's got nightmares. His dad's face coming to haunt him: "save me," he says and then there's the sound of hard breathing easing into the nothingness.

And Chanyeol's an imsoniac. He's on tea and Kyungsoo hanging by his side, lulling him to sleep. On his worst days he looks like a panda, eyebags turning all shades of dark blue and on his best days, he still looks like a panda, albeit a happier one.

He has an excellent eye for trouble and his instincts for hunting are unparalleled. It's just that slight tilt of his head that tells you something's wrong; that particular way he looks at people's lips when they talk.

Kyungsoo likes him all the same, and even more, for it. 

If they'd met before, it would've mean chaos: Kyungsoo a bit of an ass then, wasting his youth away, buried deep down on his way to a major and Chanyeol too busy enjoying his life somewhere else.

Turns out the end of time's just the perfect place to meet.

Now it's been a year since Chanyeol moved next door, next mile, and half his possessions are lying scattered across Kyungsoo's floor. Kyungsoo even got around to introduce him to Jongdae and Baekhyun. They had a great night (as great as dining out, holding onto rifles and keeping watch can get) searching old houses around a city far north for food, or really just anything of use.

Chanyeol's own little house's mostly abandoned; he's been sharing Kyungsoo's bed, both for scarce sleep and for several other reasons.

He cooks for them, breakfast and dinner. Their relationship's gone from being a mere 'logical' arrengement to a full 'I don't think I can't leave you now' thing. Kyungsoo's enjoying his waking up to Chanyeol sleeping naked on top of him.

They kiss like they invented it. And maybe the did, population now have been reduced to a four figures number. Less and less visitors go by their cabin out there, Baekhyun and Jongdae venturing out even farther to look out for food.

Winter's here and they turn to sex as an ointment for the harsh cold. Short days with little to no daylight make it hard to go hunting so they stay in bed, lazying around, making up and talking nonsense 'til late.

Kyungsoo's been learning sign language from a book he found somewhere, and he's teaching Chanyeol too.

And Chanyeol's picking up on old hobbies, like music, and by next spring, four years now living with Kyungsoo, he's finally sleeping better.

There's news about a new colony being established not far away from the hills and Baekhyun, who's a doctor (or was, pre-apocalypsis, that's) says it looks promising. Jongdae holds his hand so hard it looks like it's about to break.

Hope's all humanity has now.

That and really painful memories and ghosts of past atrocities to carry to their graves.

They settle on a little townhouse, in a lovely neighborhood next to a handful of survivors. And one day, while giving a hand building what's to be a school for the few little kids running around the town, Kyungsoo finds Sehun and Junmyeon again. He introduces them to Chanyeol over dinner. They got a little baby of their own now, he's two years old and loves Chanyeol piggybacking him around the park.

Years go by and life goes on. Sometimes they visit their little cabin up there in the hills, now serving as a memorial site of sorts. Their parents and siblings' photographs lay there; Kyungsoo gets them fresh flowers every sunday.

It's hard sometimes too; nightmares can't be all shooed away forever, they keep making their appearance from time to time, paying their respects to the eternally wounded.

Chanyeol's hearing's better now and Kyungsoo's taking him to a local concert next week, as a birthday gift.

It's been fifteen years since they lost it all, and it's been around ten since they found something to replace it, something to help fill the void.

Life can't be measure indefinitely on the pains of knowing what innocent people dying under hate and greed, now not more than bullets and police clubs, sound like. There's a silver lining out there, somewhere and perfection's not easily achieved.

Kyungsoo's never been looking for it. Chanyeol's more than enough, he thinks, while stroking his hair and hoping (praying), tomorrow's a succession of better days like that one to come.

Because time does go on, too. It really does. 


End file.
